


Weakness

by AwashSquid



Category: Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon, Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon | Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon (Anime & Manga)
Genre: F/F, descriptions of violence, shadow!Venus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-15
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-11-01 03:29:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10913391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AwashSquid/pseuds/AwashSquid
Summary: One part of being the leader means that you must know all weaknesses of your subordinates.





	Weakness

**Author's Note:**

> This was based off a prompt generator: Minako and Haruka in a cave. I wanted to try something with a little horror overtones when I wrote this, so it's a bit of a departure from what I usually write.

The stone walls of the cave could have been the world’s most luxurious mattress for all the care with which Haruka threw herself against the nearest jagged surface, weary from running for—minutes? hours? She had lost track of time since Tokyo was clouded in perpetual darkness now. A hiss escaped her mouth unbidden as cold rock came into contact with an open slash wound on her back, the unexpected pain shooting down and making her aching feet tingle. She knew she couldn’t rest long, but she needed to take stock of her injuries. _Just like Minako always drilled into me,_ she recalled, visualizing the orange-clad Senshi screaming: “If you don’t even know where you’re hurt because you’re so caught up in The Mission, the enemy will use that to their advantage!”

But Haruka never was good at categorizing, and thinking of that time Before—of the days spent prior to the world becoming absolute shit—just caused a whole new kind of pain to wrack her body.

For now, she would have to be content with the knowledge that she had beaten Minako to this place. Surely she would not be far behind, but she had beaten her, just like every other time they had run this race. Just like when they had trained together, pushing and straining their natural and supernatural limits to the breaking point. A smile rose to her face unbidden as she remembered the hard work to better their abilities, and the drunken antics that sometimes had followed after, Rei and Michiru usually looking on with a mixture of horror and fondness before whisking themselves away.

The smile left her face abruptly as a metal chain wrapped around her neck. _Oh, fuck,_ she thought in a panic, hands scrabbling to loosen the tight bond. She should have had more time. She should have been ahead. She should have checked the area, just like Minako had told her to. She shouldn’t have been captured this way.

And yet, she was. The Senshi of Venus tutted lightly as she sprung down from her shadowy perch. Her movements were uncharacteristically slow and deliberate, one hand holding the heart chain, the other on the sword at her waist. The fingers there kept drumming on its hilt, twitching to some unidentifiable beat, and with horror, Haruka noted that her index finger was missing its nail. Her typically white uniform was bloodstained, she was missing her right glove, and at some point Mars had burned away her red bow, along with half of her hair. The effect made Haruka want to both sob and scream until it was revealed that this was all some elaborate training test, some prank gone utterly wrong. But one look at Minako’s face solidified that this horror was completely real: her tiara was cracked and hung loosely over her left eye, but did nothing to cover the cold, dead stare and the manic grin.

“Oh, Haruka,” came the voice—so much quieter than it should be, so much crueler. “Still trying to run, I see.” The chain loosened a little, just enough for a solitary breath, before tightening again with a precise flick of the wrist. _She’s toying with me like I’m a fucking mouse,_ Haruka thought, and the anger must have shown on her face, because Venus’s smile only widened as the chain grew tighter. _This isn’t the Minako I knew,_ Haruka kept reminding herself, even as her vision started to go black. She felt her knees hit the cave floor, felt her hands drop to her sides, unable to pull at the unbreakable chain any longer.

And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the chain vanished from her neck and tied around her waist, securing her arms tightly. It wound around her ankles like a snake, and she was hoisted into the air by it as she gasped for breath. There was no use in struggling, she knew, but she struggled a little anyway, not ready to give up.

“You—cheated,” Haruka ground out. “Didn’t—keep—path.”

Venus shrugged. “All’s fair in love and war, Ruka.” The bound woman cringed at the friendly nickname spit so acidly from a mouth that was both eerily familiar and utterly foreign. “And I am an expert in both regards.”

Uranus chuckled lowly, hanging her head to hide the pain in her eyes, the emotions that Michiru always told her would give her away. “Expert? You can’t even find her.”

She felt a hand under her chin, fingernails digging into the flesh and yanking her face upwards. There would be no hiding from the empty blue eyes that were an inch away from her own, close enough that Haruka could see each patch of thick eyelashes that had disappeared—from fire or stress, she could not say. They crinkled at the corners in a thin imitation of mirth, a hollow shadow of the happiness that usually came so naturally to Minako. “I _will_ find my Princess,” she whispered dangerously. “Because you’re going to tell me where she is.”

The chains constricted and went white-hot as Uranus screamed. She heard the fabric sizzle off of her uniform and felt the chain began to melt into her skin—it was cutting into her so slowly and so damn hot that she thought she might pass out—she could almost feel it reaching her bone—she could smell her own burning flesh—

And it stopped. She retched onto the floor as she caught a glance of the chain, a good centimeter into her arms.

“Pathetic,” ground out Venus, the smile disappearing for the first time. “I thought I taught you how to take pain better than this!” A kick landed on Haruka’s back, just where her wound was, and she let out a howl as the pointy toe of Venus’s shoe dug in. She heard a deranged giggle as the woman circled her.

“You should know that I won’t give in to torture, Min—Venus.” Haruka met the blue eyes, knowing that there was no lie to betray her. She would rather die than betray her Princess; she had signed on to do so the second she took the wand, and she would never dishonor her duty because of pain.

The smile appeared again, so wide that the lips began to crack from the strain, a thin line of blood dripping down and staining the perfectly white teeth. “I was hoping you would say that.” A blinding flash of light blasted away the rock directly opposite Uranus, revealing another Senshi, uniform so torn and bloody that for a moment she couldn’t distinguish who it was.

But the teal hair, even matted with blood, gave it away, and she felt her heart drop.

“Now,” said Venus, voice rising to a fever pitch as she drew the sword from her belt, “let’s find out just how much your Mission means to you, Ruka.”


End file.
